


chasing cars

by egaliteoulamort (hockeydyke)



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Homophobic Language, Implied/Referenced Underage Drinking, M/M, Smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-08-14
Packaged: 2018-08-08 18:02:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7767757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hockeydyke/pseuds/egaliteoulamort
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The car is a little rusty but still respectable, some model that he doesn’t know of. He doesn’t really know cars, but it looks foreign to him (then again, he really doesn’t know cars).  The bright lights sting his eyes, already used to the dark of the evening, but through his squinting he can make out a woman at the wheel. The car wheels up to where he is, and as it passes he can finally see the passenger seat.<br/>There’s a boy sitting there, some kid.<br/>And he is gorgeous. </p>
<p>Hikaru Sulu, high school senior, is in a bit of a slump. His friends are assholes, he's not quite sure who he is, and he feels like he's missing something. Then he meets Pavel Chekov.</p>
            </blockquote>





	chasing cars

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was written years ago-- around when Into Darkness was in theaters. That old. I'd totally forgotten about it until I was looking through some files on my old computer the other day and found a couple of fics I wrote ages ago, including this one. It was originally supposed to be some sort of 50s-60s era greaser AU, but it kind of just became a generic high school AU with no set year.  
> Warnings for smoking and both homophobic and racist slurs from the group of guys Sulu is hanging out with toward the beginning.   
> Title from Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol.

 

            It’s not even Hikaru’s fault that they get kicked out of the diner. Mike was the one who had been screwing around in the first place; it was Mike’s stupid comments about the waiter’s slicked-back hair and gum-chewing habits that angered the manager.

            To be fair, Hikaru doesn’t exactly tell Mike to stop. He just sort of slumps back into the padded seat of their booth and hopes that Mike won’t get into another fistfight. There’s no way he’s telling him off for being a dick, simply because A. no one tells Mike Stokowski that he’s being a dick, and B. Mike Stokowski already knows he’s being a dick anyway. It’s safer just to be quiet, unlike Darren and Chris, who are cheering Mike on from across the table.

As safe as silence is, Hikaru knew that the quicker they get out of here, the better- so as soon as the manager steps up to their table, he shoves Mike out of the seat and tells him to get going.

            “Come on, man. We just got here.” Mike pushes him right back into the seat.

            Hikaru knows that the right thing to do is pretend that shove didn’t actually hurt him, so he ignores his throbbing shoulder and slides out again. “They don’t want us here.”

            Mike grits his teeth.

            Hikaru leans in to whisper, “Can’t even smoke in here, anyway.”

            Mike smirks. “Come on.” He strides past the waiter and manager, yanking his lighter from his pocket. “I think we should go somewhere where we can actually have some fun.”

            Hikaru follows the other three out, rolling his eyes. He should be studying for his physics test tomorrow, but he supposes that it’s not really a big deal. Teenagers are supposed to relax and get in trouble sometimes- although there’s been a lot of sometimes recently. He’s been hanging around with Mike a lot, even though he can’t quite remember why. Probably the atmosphere, he thinks. When he’s around Mike’s gang, smoking behind the high school or partying later than anyone should be awake, he feels alive.

            “Alright, you’re gonna find us a new place to smoke.” Mike crosses his arms as soon as they’re out of the diner.

            “Aw, come on!” Hikaru leans up against the side of the building. “Why me?”

            “You got us kicked out of there, punk.” Darren nods knowingly, like he knows shit that Hikaru doesn’t.

            “I did not! That was all Mike back there.”

            Mike snorts. “You’re the one who chickened out. Anyway, you got the car. Where we going now, chauffer?”

            It’s true. Hikaru has his dad’s old Chevy, so it’s his choice. Not that he’s supposed to have the Chevy out of the garage in the first place, but his dad is on a business trip in Milwaukee, so there’s no way he’ll find out.  “You know that cornfield on Delta Road?”

            “Cornfield, Sulu? I never took you for a migrant.” Mike grins. “You look like too much of a Chinaman for that.

            Hikaru bites his lip. Mike’s an ass, he thinks. There’s nothing to do about it. “Shut up. I’m not Chinese. It’s a stupid idea, anyhow.”

            “Nah, shoot.” Chris says. “I’m up for it.”

            “There’s a cleared-out spot that I’ve seen. Overlooks the entire town- it’s up on a little bit of a hill, so you could see anything from up there.” Mike doesn’t seem to be buying it, so he adds, “And it’s close enough to the road that we could egg some cars.”

            “I’m in.” Mike nods.

            Hikaru climbs into the car. He’s not getting any studying done tonight.

.

            He’s right: after they’ve parked the car on the side of the road and climbed up to sit on the hood, they can see around for miles. Hikaru spots the school, the town hall and the library nestled together in the village, even his own neighborhood., but those aren’t what he spends the time looking at.

            Like the stupid dreamer he is, he’s looking at the stars and letting his mind wander. He can’t remember doing this since he was a kid, but it’s familiar, the cool surface of his dad’s car beneath him and the back of his head resting on his arms while he looks at the sky, any thought of smoking forgotten while he sighs at the pinpricks of light above.

            “Come back to Earth, loser.” Mike says, jerking him out of his reverie. “We’re going out to see what’s in the field. You coming?”

            “Nah.” It’s a reflex, and as soon as he says it, he knows that he needs a good excuse, or else Mike won’t stop pressuring him to join in the fun.

            Just as he suspected, Mike follows with, “Why not?”

            Hikaru opens his mouth aimlessly, closes it, then opens it again. “Because I’m not leaving my dad’s car alone on the side of the road.”

            Darren and Chris have already ducked into the maze of cornstalks, so Mike just shrugs and follows them, taking a drag of the cigarette he really shouldn’t be smoking in a field of flammable corn husks. After a moment Hikaru turns away from where they disappeared and rests his head against the car once more. He almost misses the sound of a car approaching on the road, but the field is so quiet- other than the sound of crickets and the slight rustling of leaves- that he’s able to make out the rumble of the engine before he can see it around the curve of the road.

            He looks up. It’s almost a duty, to see what kind of car it is and who’s inside, he thinks. Hardly any vehicles have passed by yet, so it’s almost a victory to sight one. He pushes himself into a sitting position and squints at the road. Sure enough, the glare of headlights emerge from his left and work their way towards him, ever so slowly. It’s almost comical, how slow they’re going, although Hikaru knows that it’s reasonable to be careful on backcountry roads like this one at night.

            The car is a little rusty but still respectable, some model that he doesn’t know of. He doesn’t really know cars, but it looks foreign to him (then again, he _really_ doesn’t know cars).  The bright lights sting his eyes, already used to the dark of the evening, but through his squinting he can make out a woman at the wheel. The car wheels up to where he is, and as it passes he can finally see the passenger seat.

            There’s a boy sitting there, some kid.

            And he is gorgeous. Hikaru grins, almost accidentally, at the boy. He’s so picturesque, elbows propped up on the side of the car and gazing outside like any teenager is apt to do, a small smile playing at the corners of his mouth. His hair is a ruckus, curly and light and rumpled, and his eyes are big and bright and Hikaru is so screwed. Yes, he knows he likes guys- at least, he thinks that’s what he’s decided on. The thing is, there’s never been a specific guy to set his attentions on (fine, he thought Jim Kirk was hot in ninth grade. Everyone thought Jim Kirk was hot in seventh grade). And now, stupidly enough, he’s thinking about this boy already.

            The car is past him in seconds, but he swears that he made eye contact- that those pale hands resting against the glass pressed up against it in some sort of wave as he caught sight of Hikaru. Whatever it is, it’s gone in seconds.

            Hikaru sighs again and collapses into the car. A chance sighting. There’s no way he’s ever seeing that kid again, so he should stop thinking about him. Even so, he spends the rest of the night trying to keep the stupid grin off his face, because even though he knows that he’s just fantasizing about an imaginary relationship that has nothing to do with the boy’s real personality, he has something nice to think about.

            He doesn’t say anything when the other guys get back. He just goes back to worrying about his physics test (not that he’d mention it to Mike, who’d call him a nerd) and driving everyone back to their respective houses, and it’s his own business if he thinks about the boy again when he’s falling asleep that night.

.

            He manages to forget about the kid the next morning while he stumbles through breakfast and throws on last night’s jeans and a t-shirt, that face not even crossing his mind when he arrives at school and plods on to first period, where he knows he  flunks the test. He’s never failed an important test before.

            There’s no reason to wait ages for some lame school lunch, so Hikaru simply uses the cafeteria as a path to the door that leads outside, where Mike and everyone hang out during lunch. About halfway through the roar of teenagers eating their lunches, he’s stopped by a sharp voice to his right.

            “Hikaru! Hikaru Sulu, get over here.”

            It’s Nyota Uhura. He hasn’t talked to her in months. He’s shocked that she’s speaking to him.

            “Sit down, Hikaru.” She commands.

            You can’t resist Nyota, so he does as she says. “Yeah?”

            “Are you going to join gardening club this year or not?”

            Shit. Shit. He want out of this conversation right now. “I- uh- I don’t think so?” Damn, he didn’t mean for that to sound like a question.

            Nyota rests a hand on his wrist. “Are you sure?” She’s suddenly gone from intimidating to curious. He’s known her long enough to not be surprised. “It’s always been your favorite.”

            “I don’t know.” He says, and he knows it’s not enough, because he’s a shitty friend for ignoring the club that he and his best friend had started together when they got to high school, only because Hikaru liked gardening and Nyota liked making her friends happy.

            “I never see you anymore.” She adds.

            “I know.” He almost makes up some measly excuse about how they don’t have many classes together, but that had never stopped them in the past- when they were inseparable buddies, from the third grade up until last year.

            “Jim Kirk’s been telling me he wants to join. I told him to piss off.”

            “Can’t really stop Jim.” Hikaru shrugs. “I gotta go.”

            “Please, Hikaru.” He knows what she’s saying, but he takes a deep breath and reminds himself how stupid gardening club is. How he wants to _live._

            “It’s senior year, Nyota.” He pulls his hand away. “I want to have fun.” He’s careful not to look back as he walks away.

.

            They go back to the cornfield that night, because Mike’s hooked up with some girl and wants to make out in the barn way out in the field. Chris comes along with his girl, too, so it makes some sort of double date with Hikaru as the fifth wheel and the transport. He doesn’t mind, though. There’s a headache making his mind throb, pulsing in and out and in and out, and he’s worried that he’s going to pass out or have some sort of aneurism, but he keeps it to himself and pops a few painkillers from the glove compartment after he parks the car. No big deal- nothing he can’t handle while everyone goes out to have some fun. Something he can hide.

            He falls asleep after ten minutes, slumped up with his face on the windshield and drooling on the glass. Somehow, thoughts of the boy are coming back to him while he drifts off into an uneasy rest, and it’s thoughts of that boy that jerk him back awake, thoughts of a pale face half hidden in shadow and a voice he can’t quite imagine. It’s either that or the cold, which wracks his body with shivers. Damn. Awfully cold for September, he thinks, although he’s no climate expert. The wind plays with the edges of his jacket and though he can’t seem to fall asleep again he closes his eyes until he hears the rumble of an engine and they snap back open again.

            The car rolls by at a painfully slow pace, but he recognizes it as soon as it turns around the curve. Sure enough, it’s the same woman driving, and as she eases up past him, he can see the guy with the curly hair. He’s thin but his arms look lithe, and Hikaru is a little turned on by the way he runs his slender hand through his hair.

            Fuck. He has a full-blown crush on a kid he’s never spoken to. Fantastic.  Just his luck. He nearly swoons when the boy gives him a little wave with the hand not entangled with his curls.

            Hikaru Sulu is a dead man, and he lies down and looks at the stars until the others get back, daydreaming once more. Maybe if he just lays here, he can forget about everything else. He just needs his little dream boy to keep him going.

.

            If he thinks he can survive on just a few dreams, he’s wrong. His subconscious betrays him, and even though Mike and the gang decide that they’re not hanging out at the cornfield again (they need a place with easy access to alcohol, Darren insists), Hikaru ends up driving there again night after night. First, it’s just to forget the way that Nyota stares at him when he passes her during lunch, like it’s his fault that they’re just not really hanging out anymore. He doesn’t go when Mike needs his car for a ride, of course, but most every other night he’s there around seven o’clock to give his- no, not his, _the-_ the boy a wave and a smile.

            And then, almost without warning, it’s every weeknight, because Mike has stopped asking him for rides. In fact, Mike’s stopped with pretty much everything, it seems: the just-too-hard slaps on the back, smokes between classes, and even plain old hanging out. After three straight days of saying absolutely nothing to any of the guys during lunch, Hikaru retreats to the library during that period.

            He thinks he sort of messed up the whole teenager-having-fun thing, because the only fun left for him is a few minutes in the evening when he looks out to see a boy he doesn’t even know the name of. He’s tried out a few names in his head- John, Peter, Levi, Zack, but none of them fit, so he’s given up.

            It’s October by the time Mike approaches him again.

            “Hey, Sulu, you busy tonight?”

            “Yes.” Hikaru answers, thinking about his prior commitment to the field.

            “Great,” Mike continues, not even listening, “because I think we should all go down and sneak into that bar in Riverside.”

            Hikaru bites his lip. “Who’s ‘we?’”

            “Oh, you know.” Mike slings an arm around his shoulder and Hikaru shies away. “Me, Kaitlin, maybe Darren and Rose.”

            Ah, that setup. Not again.

            “No thanks.” Hikaru says. “I’m all good.”

            “Aw, really? Suck it up, Sulu- you’re no cooler than the rest of us. Just do it.”

            “No thanks.” Hikaru turns on his heels and retreats into the library, maybe because he’s a coward who won’t face Mike, or maybe because he doesn’t care anymore.

            Whatever it is, he’s not surprised when Mike calls him a fag the next day in the hallway. To be honest, he’s not in any worse of a place socially than he was sophomore year, and it gives him hope that he hasn’t screwed up too badly.

.

            He nearly falls asleep at the cornfield that night. He can’t remember the last time he’s gotten a full night’s sleep, what with dreaming and worrying and random hormonal shit he hopes is normal. Thankfully he’s developed some sort of internal clock that wakes him up in time to see the car pass by again- that stupid boy that he’s been clinging to for a month.

            It’s worth it. He shakes himself awake and even though he usually feels like a loser he feels _alive_ tonight, with the autumn breezes whistling softly around him and cool air in his lungs, and he’s maybe even a little happy, if confused about why.

            The engine is music to his ears and he leans forward as the car’s headlights slip into his vision. He squints as he always does, but something’s different- there’s no passenger.

            Slower than ever, the car rolls down the road. It’s so gradual that he can hear the tires crunching the gravel of the poorly paved road; he can almost count the rotations of the wheel as it approaches, ever so slowly. So unbelievably slow that it takes him humorously long to see who’s driving.

            It’s his kid, of course.

            He passes Hikaru by, but flashes him a shit-eating grin before turning back to concentrate on the road, and that one move angers Hikaru. He’s been dreaming about this boy’s good looks for weeks, and all he gets is a smirk?

            Hikaru Sulu is not going stand for this shit anymore, and he springs off the hood of his car and lands on the side of the road, quickly recovering to start running. He runs and he runs to catch up with that stupid blue car and the cold air bites at his lungs while he gasps for air. His bangs fly into his eyes and then stream away in seconds as he brushes them away, and the tails of his coat catch wind drag him down so he rips it off and throws it behind him on the road.

            It hardly registers when he catches up to the car he’s been chasing for a month, which is now parked on the side of the road.

            There’s a click as the doors are unlocked from the inside and Hikaru cautiously lets himself in, climbing onto the passenger seat and slamming the door shut behind him.

            The boy is still smiling and Hikaru is smiling and he forgets any trace of anger.

            “I’m Pavel Chekov.” He says, with an accent Hikaru never could have imagined.

            “Hikaru Sulu.” He’s breathing heavily and his eyes are a little bit watery from the wind and the boy- this _Pavel,_ what a gorgeous name- is leaning closer. Hikaru keeps trying to catch his breath, and Pavel leans back again.

            “I go to the prep school the next town over.” He says, as if that’s an explanation for everything. “I stay after for track, but I just got my license, so my parents are letting me drive home tonight.”

            Hikaru nods, not blinking. His voice is sexy as hell. “Are you, uh, not from around here?”

            “Da, we’re from Russia,  although I have lived here two years. I like astrophysics. and stars, just because they are nice to look at, and I like running, and music, and also you.”

            Hikaru opens his mouth to repeat that last part but he is suddenly kissing Pavel Chekov, and that’s not really something he can argue with, so he leans closer and wraps his arms around that head of curls and he knows that maybe this doesn’t mean anything, but he can still enjoy it.

.

            Pavel is nothing like Hikaru imagined. For one, he’s a little shit. He flirts with everyone and everything, using his stupidly cute looks and voice to woo people in seconds. He successfully woos Hikaru, too- not that he’d admit it. Hikaru’s also a little worried about how manipulative the kid is. When he brought him to a football game, for example, and left to go to the bathroom, only to come back and find that Pavel had been talking to Nyota. The two struck up a deal (Pavel didn’t say this, but Hikaru suspects) to get Hikaru to start going to gardening club.

            “Gardening, Pasha?” Hikaru asks, with his arm wrapped around the other boy. They’re sitting under the bleachers, free from the prying eyes of nearly everyone from Riverside High.

            Pavel nods. “Nyota-” they’re already on first name terms, it seems, even though Nyota goes by her last name with nearly everyone “-Nyota says that you have a garden at home.”

            Hikaru nods, but it’s a lie. He doesn’t have a garden anymore; he has a neglected patch of dirt behind his house that he forgot to tend to this year.

            “And I think that is sweet.” Pavel adds. “And Nyota and Jim and everyone are nice, so we are going to hang out with them.”

            Which is funny, because Pavel has been perfectly fine with being alone with Hikaru so far. Just the two of them, usually, for a little bit when Pavel is driving home from school, or on weekends. That doesn’t mean Hikaru doesn’t like the idea- in fact, he likes it, the thought of bringing his boyfriend to the club and showing him off to his friends. Friends, too: that’s another nice idea.

            So they start to go to gardening club again, and while Hikaru isn’t too fond of the way Jim and Pavel keep emptying watering cans over his head, he figures it’s an okay price to pay, because he likes it when Pavel giggles, and he likes it when he has people to call his friends.

.

            He and Pavel go out to the cornfield most every night when it’s warm enough, and when they lie there, Hikaru mostly forgets about everything bad. Sometimes they talk about the garden (which they’ve mostly abandoned now that it’s been harvested and the ground has begun to frost over), and sometimes they talk about other things, like the way Spock has started trailing behind Nyota and coming to meetings, and how Leonard is going to kick Jim’s ass when he finds out he’s the one who put a carved jack o’ lantern in his locker. They don’t talk about Mike and his gang—instead, they just watch the cars passing by, holding hands.

            Things are good like that.

 

           

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I'm on tumblr as @egaliteoulamort, same as here.


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